동아시아 문명시스템: 신중세화론적 모색

Abstract

The defeat of the Western-centric globalization in the 21st century and the contrasting rise of East Asia are facilitating the new ‘Asia-Pacific era.’ However, the semantic formation of ‘East Asia’ as the central region of the Pacific Rim is understood by the imperialistic work of ‘modern world system’ created by the great powers of Europe and America and the militant nation of Japan. Therefore, decontextualization of ‘East Asia’ from imperialism must take place before ‘recreating the Pacific’ in the Asia-Pacific region in the true sense. This paper proposes a regional system model as a new dimension of East Asia based on the ‘neo-medievalization theory,’ which has a post-modern and post-imperialistic context. This idea arises from the awareness that there needs to be an innovation in the civilization to break away from the modern world system dominating East Asia. This model joins the discourse that accepts a relatively stable, symbiotic and inclusive ‘civilization system’ instead of a variable, confrontational and exclusive domain of ethnic groups, nations and citizens. In specific, this paper aimed to discuss the common regional goal of changing the ‘modernization — ethnic (sovereignty) national system’ of East Asia in connection with the Asia-Pacific region and to present the directivity and theory by conceiving a ‘neo-medievalization — civilization system’ that interweaves the discourse of the bygone civilization and East Asia. This was an attempt to form an intellectual background for peace and common prosperity of East Asia.